Comments

Revised Common Lectionary Commentary

Clippings:
Ash Wednesday - February 14, 2018

Saint Dominiccontemplating the Scriptures

Author's note:Sometimes I have material left over when I edit Comments down to
fit the available space. This page presents notes that landed on the clipping
room floor. Some may be useful to you. While I avoid technical language
in the Comments (or explain special terms), Clippings may have unexplained
jargon from time to time.

A hypertext Glossary of Terms is integrated with Clippings. Simply
click on any highlighted word in the text and a pop-up window will appear
with a definition. Bibliographic references are also integrated in the
same way.

Joel 2:1-2,12-17

A minority of scholars see Joel as living during the reign of Joash (837-800
BC). The majority see the book as post-exilic but vary as to whether it is early
or late. Some of the arguments for dating this book are:

Many classes of people are mentioned in the book but nowhere is a king
or royal court mentioned. In a time of emergency, the king represented the people
before God. So Joel was written when there was no longer a monarchy.

Despite
the fact that the Babylonians ended the kingdom of David and destroyed the Temple
(in 587 BC), they and their rulers are not mentioned. So Judah had already been conquered
by the Persians (539 BC) at the time of writing.

The Temple plays an important
role in the book. So, if there was no longer a king, the book must have been written
after the Temple was rebuilt, i.e. after 515 BC.

Both Tyre and Sidon are
mentioned as existing. Tyre was destroyed in 332 BC and Sidon in 343 BC. So the book
was written before 343 BC. [
NJBC]

Joel uses the catastrophe of the plague of locusts as a dire warning. He goes
on to depict the advent of the day of
Yahweh and its final judgements and blessings (see
2:28-3:21)

A large swarm of locusts in the area in 1915 came from the northeast. [
NJBC] Plagues of locusts do occur today in Ethiopia. In Exodus
10:13, the locusts come to Egypt from the east. [
CAB]

1:1: The prophet’s inspiration and authority are not self-generated,
but come from God, whose will is disclosed through the prophet, whose personal agent
he is and whom alone he must obey. See also Hosea
1:1; Micah
1:1; Zephaniah
1:1; Haggai
1:1; Zechariah
1:1 for other such declarations. [
NOAB]

1:8ff: The priests are to mourn like young widows – implying that
God has been husband to Judah. [
NJBC]

1:13: “Grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house
of your God”: The main point of contact with God has been eliminated.

1:15-20: The approach of the day of
Yahweh is often pictured as God’s anger against his opponents. At times,
it is his anger against Israel’s enemies, but it comes to be directed against
Israel. See also Isaiah
2:5-22; Amos
5:18-25; Lamentations
1:12; Jeremiah
46:10 (“That day is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of retribution,
to gain vindication from his foes ...”); Ezekiel
39:8. [
CAB]

1:19: “fire ... flames”: Signs of the destruction being from
God: see Zephaniah
1:14-18.

2:2: “blackness”: The Hebrew is obscure. Some scholars argue
for the Hebrew word being one which translates as dawn. [
NJBC]

2:3: “Before them ...”: Joel reverses the imagery of Isaiah
51:3: “For the Lord will
comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness
like Eden, her desert like the garden of the
Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of
song”. [
NJBC]

2:4-9: The locusts approach with the relentless and devastating force
of a powerful army. See also
2:25 and Revelation
9:7-10. [
NOAB]

2:10: At the time of divine visitation, the sun, moon and stars will refuse
to shine: Amos
8:9 says: “On that day, says the Lord
God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight”.
[
NOAB]

2:13: “rend your hearts”: The heart was thought to be the
seat of intelligence and will. This verse is rooted in Israel’s ancient formulations
of faith: see Exodus
34:6; Nehemiah
9:17,
31; Psalm
86:15. [
NJBC]

2:20: “northern army”: The north was the traditional direction
for trouble, so much so that to be called a northerner was to be considered
a troublemaker. [
NJBC] There may also be an allusion to the invading armies of Babylon and Assyria.
[
CAB] See also Jeremiah
1:13-16;
4:6 (“... I am bringing evil from the north, and a great destruction”).
[
NJBC]

2:20: “its stench and foul smell”: The smell of the rotting
carcases was noted in the 1915 plague. [
NJBC]

2:23: “early rain”: The text is obscure.
NJBC says that “early rain” could be teacher: the words in
Hebrew are sufficiently similar. Whether or not this is the case, rain, justice and
teaching are connected in Isaiah
30:19-26; 1 Kings
8:35-36; 2 Chronicles
6:26-27.

In the
Qumran literature, there is a figure called the Teacher of Righteousness
: see, for example, CD (Damascus Document) 1:5-12; 1QpHab (*Pesher on Habakkuk) 1:13;
5:10. But the expression here is not exactly the same as at Qumran.(The word translated
“vindication” can also be translated as righteousness.)

The light Palestinian plow was unable to penetrate the hard, parched earth, so
the early rains were critical to agriculture.

2:27: By God’s gift of abundance, the Lord’s people will know
that he alone is their god (see Isaiah
45:4,
5,
18; Ezekiel
36:11;
39:28) and dwells in their midst (see
3:17,
21). [
NOAB]

2:28: “all flesh”: To Joel, this means primarily Jews, including
those who have returned from exile: see
3:2,
17,
19-20; Ezekiel
39:29. For Peter at Pentecost, it includes all nations: see Acts
2:17. [
NOAB]

2:31: “the great and terrible day”: In the New Testament,
see Mark
13:24 (where Jesus says: “ in those days, after that suffering, the sun
will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light”) and Revelation
6:12. [
NOAB]

Verse 8: “light”:
42:6-7 says “I am the Lord
, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the
eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison
those who sit in darkness”.

Verses 13-14: Strict observance of the Sabbath was increasingly emphasized
in post-exilic Judaism: see also
56:2 and Matthew
12:1-8. [
NOAB] Associating the Sabbath with concern for the poor explains the addition
of these verses.

Verse 14: “for the mouth of the Lord has spoken”: This repeats
40:5. [
NJBC]

Psalm 51:1-17

Superscription: “A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came
to him, after he had gone into Bathsheba”: While the psalm itself nowhere refers
to the story of David and Bathsheba, [
CAB] it fits the mood that David might well have been in, having been caught
red-handed.

Although v.
8 makes it clear that the psalmist’s problem is one of illness, the main
emphasis is upon restoration to moral, rather than merely physical, health. [
NOAB]

Verse 5: “born guilty”: See also Psalm
58:3 and Isaiah
48:8. The psalmist confesses to having had a sinful nature even from the moment
of conception. [
NOAB] The notion of lifelong sinfulness is also found in Genesis
8:21: “... for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth”
(although the psalmist may simply be confessing that he has been thoroughly sinful).

Verse 7: “Purge me with hyssop” : This may refer to some ceremony
of sprinkling of blood or water, using branches or a bush. The reference may be metaphorical.
See Exodus
12:22, Leviticus
14:51.
NOAB sees it as definitely metaphorical.

Verse 10: “Create”: In Hebrew, bara, the same word
used in Genesis
1:1. Creating is an action proper to God; only he can do the purification. [
JBC]

Verse 10: “clean heart”: Literally fidelity in that which
is secret, i.e. the depths of his being.

Verse 10: “right spirit”: God’s action in humans which
saves them and keeps them faithful. Ezekiel speaks of a new heart and a new spirit
(see Ezekiel
11:19,
36:27). Jeremiah also speaks of a new spirit (and a new covenant) in Jeremiah
24:7,
31:33.

Verses 13-17: The psalmist says: when you give me your joy, I will instruct
(proclaim my experience publicly and this lead sinners back to God) and praise God
– rather than offer sacrifice in thanksgiving. [
NOAB]

Verses 18-19:
NOAB believes that this psalm may date from David’s time, and that these
verses was added later to modify the anti-sacrificial spirit of vv.
13-17 and to adapt the psalm to liturgical use.

Psalm 103:8-18

This might be classified as a hymn, but vv.
1-5 suggest that the words, though general, are intended to express the emotion
of a particular individual on a specific occasion. [
NOAB]

This is a psalm of thanksgiving, of deep religious sensitivity, but it can also
be seen as a hymn of praise. [
JBC]

Verses 1-2: See
104:1 for another hymn-like exhortation to one’s self. [
JBC]

Verse 3: For the association of the forgiveness of sin with healing of
physical illness in the New Testament, see Mark
2:10-11. The association of sin with illness is found in both the Old Testament
(see Job; Psalms
32:3-5;
107:17) and the New Testament (see John
9 and James
5:14-16). [
NJBC]

Verse 5: “good”: This may refer to God’s benefits in
general or more specifically to the divine presence as it does in Exodus
33:19. [
NJBC]

Verse 5: “the eagle’s”: The vigour of the eagle was
proverbial: Isaiah
40:31 says: “those who wait for the
Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint”. [
NOAB]

Verse 7: In Exodus
33:13, Moses says: “Now if I have found favour in your sight, show me your
ways, so that I may know you and find favour in your sight. Consider too that this
nation is your people”. [
NOAB]

Verse 21: “all his hosts”: i.e. the divine council, the army
of heaven, indeed all in heaven. They are to join in praising God enthroned in heaven.
[
NJBC]

2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

5:16: “from a human point of view”: For the by worldly
standards interpretation, see also 1 Corinthians
1:26. Another interpretation is: humanity in its weakness, temporality and inclination
for self-seeking: see Romans
8:4-5,
12; Galatians
4:23,
29. [
CAB]

5:17: “anyone is in Christ”: For the believing community as
Christ, see also 1 Corinthians
6:15;
8:12;
12:12. [
NJBC]

5:17: “there is”: This is not in the Greek, but is supplied
to make sense. [
NJBC]

5:17: “a new creation”: In
apocalyptic Judaism (see 1 Enoch 72:1-2; 2 Baruch 32:6; Jubilees 4:26; 1QS 4:25) a new creation inaugurated the
end-times. 1QS (Qumran Rule of the Community) 4:25 says: “For God has sorted
them into equal parts until the appointed end and the new creation. ...” [
Martinez].

5:18: “reconciled”: Paul writes in Romans
5:10: “... while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the
death of his Son ...”. See also Colossians
1:20. [
CAB]

5:21: “he made ... no sin”: As Messiah (see Isaiah
53:9 and Psalms of Solomon 17:40-43), Christ was acknowledged as sinless
(see Hebrews
4:15; 1 Peter
2:22; John
8:46; 1 John
3:5), yet through God’s choice (see Romans
8:3), he came to stand in that relationship to God which normally is the result
of sin; he became part of sinful humanity. [
NJBC]

5:21: “to be sin”: Perhaps to be sin offering. Romans
8:3 says, in part, “in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin”;
Isaiah
53:10 speaks of “an offering for sin”. [
NOAB]

6:1: Human cooperation is essential if the power of the gospel is to act
effectively. In 1 Corinthians
15:10, Paul says: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace
toward me has not been in vain”. The word translated “in vain”
is kenos, meaning (in Paul’s usage) non-productive. [
NJBC] Note also 1 Corinthians
1:17: “For Christ did not send me to baptise but to proclaim the gospel
... so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power”. Emptied
here is kenou. (The
REB translates this clause lest the cross of Christ be robbed of its effect
.) In 1 Corinthians
10:1-13, Paul says that being baptized and sharing in the Lord’s supper
alone do not assure us of salvation: we also need to be productive (in spreading
the good news).

6:2: “have listened” and “have helped” are in
the prophetic perfect. Isaiah
49:8 is a verse in one of the
Servant Songs. [
JBC]

6:3-7: Paul’s ministry is characterized not by success by human
standards, but by hardship – and virtues which God bestows through his power
at work through the apostles. [
CAB] Paul’s self-recommendation is the antithesis of that of his opponents
(
5:12); he stresses suffering (
4:10-11) and internal attitudes, not external trappings of spiritual power. [
NJBC]

6:4-5: What Paul has endured. The words in Greek translated “afflictions”
and “calamities” have similar meanings. V.
5a is a list of afflictions/calamities (not all of which are recorded in the
New Testament):

6:10: “sorrowful”: Paul has refused help from the Christians
at Corinth because “friends who came from Macedonia” had already helped
him sufficiently (see
11:7-11). He did not wish to burden the Christians at Corinth with a request
for support (see
12:14-18).

6:13: “children” : In 1 Corinthians
13:11, Paul says: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought
like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish
ways”.

2 Corinthians is a composite of several letters. In
7:2ff, Paul says that he has learnt through Titus that his letter (the one we
are reading) has led his critics to a change of heart, that they desire to correct
the problems in the community. They have developed obedience and a sense of awe,
realizing what God is doing amongst them through the apostle and his aides.

Verse 1: “your Father in heaven”: God in his majesty and transcendence.
[
NOAB]

Verse 2: “hypocrites”: Originally the Greek word, hypokrites
, was a theatrical term meaning actor, then one who played a part or acted a false
role in public life. In
23:18 it refers to false interpreters of scripture, religious teachers who fail
in their responsibility. [
NJBC]

Verse 4: According to
BlkMt, this verse means avoid all scheming for human attention and praise;
give filial obedience to God and with brotherly concern for those in need. It
is also possible that it is hyperbole emphasizing that pious acts should be performed
without public notice.

Verses 5-8: The positive teaching about prayer is that it should be sincere
personal communication with God and be brief because it is for our good, not God’s,
for he already knows what we need. [
NJBC]

Verse 5: “stand”: Standing was the usual posture for prayer;
they appear to be very pious. [
BlkMt]

Verse 5: “Truly ... they have received their reward”: See
also the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke
18:10-14. [
NOAB]

Verse 6: For Jesus participating in public worship, see Mark
1:21. [
NJBC]

Verses 9-15: The parallel is Luke
11:2-4. There the model of prayer is given in a simpler form. There God is addressed
intimately and affectionately as Father. [
CAB] Because the version of the Lord’s Prayer here is more formal than
the one in Luke,
NJBC suggests that Matthew added to the earliest form, the version in Luke.

The versions of the Lord’s Prayer are compared in the following table:

Matthew

Luke

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Give us each day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.

And do not bring us to the time of trial,

And do not bring us to the time of trial.

but rescue us from the evil one.

Matthew’s form is closer to Jewish prayers,
and Luke’s to other Christian prayers. The Lord’s Prayer is probably
based on Jewish prayers.

The doxology For the kingdom, ... (For thine is the kingdom...
) was added in the early Church. It is based on David’s prayer in 1 Chronicles
29:11-13. It is found in some early manuscripts.

Verse 10: “Your kingdom come”: The prayer presupposes that
the kingdom is not yet here in its fulness. [
NJBC]

Verse 10: “Your will be done”: God’s “will”
is for peace and justice: see Romans
14:17. [
NJBC]

Verse 10: “on earth as it is in heaven”: This phrase belongs
to each of the above petitions. [
NOAB] A certain analogy between heaven and earth, which is found in
Plato and Babylonian ideas of the temple and the ziggurat. [
NJBC]

Verses 16-18: Isaiah
58:5 says: “Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is
it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you
call this a fast, a day acceptable to the
Lord? Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every
yoke?”. Especially pious Jews fasted twice a week (as did Christians). In the
parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, the Pharisee says: “I fast twice
a week”. [
NOAB]

Verse 16: “fast”: Fasting was understood as: humbling oneself
before God (see Isaiah
58:3-9), strengthening prayer (see Tobit
12:8 and 2 Chronicles
30:3) as related to almsgiving, and as an expression of mourning (see
9:14-15). In Mark
2:18-20 and Matthew
9:14-15, Jesus tells the disciples not to fast during his lifetime, but fasting
will be acceptable after his departure. Jews do not have a season of fasting like
Lent, but they do observe a few days of communal fasting, especially
Yom Kippur, the
Day of Atonement, and the ninth day of the month Ab. [
NJBC]

Verse 16: “disfigure their faces ... show”: The Greek words
are similar, so there is word-play here. [
NJBC]

Verse 19ff: General instructions for the faithful community continue up
to
7:27. [
CAB]